Sunset Rubdown

Last night I was back in the small room in the Paradiso Amsterdam to see Sunset Rubdown. It was one of these shows where I almost didn’t go. It was a Monday night, and the band weren’t due on until 2200. After a long day at work there was a moment after dinner where I thought about not going. I convinced myself that it would be good, and the words of my musical adviser were in my head, telling me how talented Spencer Krug is. He is also the lead singer of another band I like, Wolf Parade.

When I got to the venue, I got myself a beer and surveyed the crowd. I like to look at the crowd to see what kind of people the band attracts. My initial findings were a lot of unwashed looking people with strange haircuts. Closer inspection revealed the hall was a mess, so I came to the conclusion that there had been some nu-metal type band playing earlier, and these people had just hang around. The more expected Sunset Rubdown crowd appeared as show time drew nearer. And fortunately the room was only about half full, so there was plenty of room

The band came out just after 2200, and I was looking for the redhead. My Superstar Adviser had told me there was a hot readhead in the band, and whilst she looked a little bit like a librarian, she was still cute. And she came across really well during the show, seemed like a fun girl. Two songs into the show, the guitar player snapped a string. Now every show I’ve been to theres always at least one spare guitar. But no, they only had one guitar. So we were going to have to wait while the dude changed his string. I’m so glad the string broke!! Spencer decided to fill time by playing a song from ”this other band that I’m in that I won’t name”. Of course he meant Wolf Parade! He proceeded to play solo on the piano my favorite tune of theirs, ‘I’ll believe In Anything”. Wow! Such a nice song done like this, I was grinning from ear to ear!

Throughout the rest of the show, Spencer and Co continued to show what talented performers they are. I’d listened to their CDs a fair bit over the last couple of months, and whilst I liked the music, it didn’t really grab my attention. However, live, the songs seem to take on a whole new dimension, which just took them all to a different level. My favorite song has to be ‘The Mending Of The Gown’. If you click the link above you can hear the song. Such a nice song, and Spencer & Red combine together really nicely on it.

They played for about an hour and a half, after Spencer dragged the guys back out for another couple songs. I think it was unplanned, Red came back out with her handbag. They played some stuff I didn’t know, which I understood was from the back catalogue, stuff Spencer said they didn’t play all that often.

Anyway, another great show, following on the back of Bon Iver this past Saturday night, I’ll be hard pushed to get another week with two great gigs like this in it

Ketch Up

Another month has past since I last wrote something in here. So many things have been happening that have made me feel depressed, that I haven’t had anything nice to write about here. I have been told that writing here is probably the best therapy I could find, but I still feel uncomfortable talking about my feelings. I think like anyone I take my knocks, and roll with the punches, and get on with things. However this last couple of months, I’ve felt lots of things getting me down all at the same time, which has made it incredibly hard to remain upbeat and positive. I’m trying hard to pick things up, and make things better, as I hate feeling like this. But, the truth is, it’s really, really difficult, and I’m not entirely sure how to go about it. I’ve never experienced lows like this before, so it goes that I don’t know how to fix it. You cut your finger, you put a plaster on it, you have a sore head, you take medication. However, when things aren’t quite right inside the head, I’m really not sure what to do about it. I’m just chugging along, trying to take each day as it comes, and not let things get too overwhelming. It seems though that just when I think I might be getting a handle on things, something else comes along and sets me back again, and I’m back to the start again.

In other news I saw Bon Iver last night here in Amsterdam. I got Bon Iver recommended to me by a good friend of mine towards the end of last year, and I’ve listened to the record several times a week ever since. He has created a sound quite unlike anything else I’ve listened too, and I find his music to be very relaxing, and it helps me a lot when my head is full of nonsense to listen to Bon Iver. So the show last night was quite an experience. I was in as the doors open, and positioned myself right at the front of the stage, just off to the left a little. I was curious to see how he re-created the album live, as on the record there are so many different sounds in the tracks. Well, Justin and his two bandmates more than managed. It really was a great show, very emotional and moving. I felt very fortunate at the end of the show to meet Justin, and get him to sign my CD cover that I had just bought. He asked my name, and signed it to me. I was able to shake his hand, and say thank you for the music. I left feeling like a kid that had just met Santa Claus! I’m sitting here writing and listening to the album just now, it really is a spectacular record. If you haven’t checked him out yet, you really need to get on it. Here is a little sample I found on youtube, of Justin doing one of the songs solo

Bon Iver on Jools Holland